9th February 2025
Reflection with readings below
God has created a world that is continually evolving. It is network of changing ecosystems inhabited by an infinite variety of species. Amongst these humans stand out for their capacity reshape the world. The writers of scriptures have known for millennia that humans have the ability to act for good or for ill. A passage in Deuteronomy tells the people that they can chose to do what is right and enjoy fruitful and joyous lives, or they can chose to do what is wrong and suffer lives of destruction and misery. And the situation hasn’t changed.
Today’s readings tell how God – aware of human frailties – time and again calls on individuals to proclaim God’s wisdom, God’s gospel of salvation, to the peoples of the world. God’s call to Isaiah
was dramatic and profound. The message Isaiah was called to speak was at a time of great tension and threat. It was not an easy message to proclaim, nor was it easy to hear. In fact the people chose to close their ears and ignore God’s warnings. Catastrophe followed.
Paul was clearly aware of the importance of the message he had to share, and equally clear that his role as a chosen messenger was not based on any merit on his part but purely on the grace of God. In fact Isaiah had shared the same sense of inadequacy. And Simon Peter too.
But whereas Isaiah’s encounter with God was full of awe and wonder, smoke and angels, Simon Peter’s boarders on the mundane. He was doing nothing more than his usually daily job. The unexpected catch of fish was certainly amazing but not out of this world. Yet the call, his encounter with Jesus, struck him to his core and was absolutely life changing. Now he was to use his skills for a different task, that of reaching out to and drawing in his fellow humankind, to allow them to encounter Jesus and to take on board a new way of living – the way of the Gospel, the way of God’s wisdom.
Here we are two millennia later. The world is in a vulnerable place and now – as always – people need to hear the word of God, to hear the wisdom that will lead them to choose the way of right living, of fruitfulness and joy.
And we are the people who must speak!
What must we say, what must we proclaim as the word of God to the world?
That we face an existential crisis of our own (human) making.
We have pumped so much carbon dioxide into the atmosphere (as well as other greenhouse gases) principally through burning fossil fuels at ever increasing rates. The warming effect on the atmosphere has already activating tipping points and feed back loops which are accelerating the impact. We’re seeing year on year increases in temperatures that are exceeding the expectations of the scientists; we’re seeing increasingly frequent and intense adverse weather events – floods, droughts, wildfire, storms, heat domes; we’re seeing melting glaciers and ice caps, rising sea levels and more frequent land and mud slides. We’re seeing the slowing of the Atlantic Meridian Overturning Current. When this current fails to circulate hot and cold waters, we in the UK will find ourselves in a land that has a climate compatible with that in Greenland. At the same time UK’s land area will be shrinking as sea levels rise by 50-70cm. This, on the present trajectory, will happen in the life time of children who have already been born. This is going to be the probably scenario they will face as they enter the job market and – perhaps – choose whether or not to become parents themselves.
We cannot prevent all of the adverse effects of the crisis – many are already baked in. But we can yet limit the worst impacts, we can protect against the most adverse consequences, we can help one another to live as safely and as comfortably as possible, but – and this is a big BUT – only if we act now on the science we have. Only if we act now for the common good – that is for the good of everyone with equality and justice – and not allow the interests of a minority to take precedence.
We need to engage the attention and the commitment of governments and organisations, of companies and and trade groups, of workers and investors, of social groups and individuals.
We have to act now. We have to act with urgency. We need to make substantial step changes so that we are more than half way to our goals of global sustainability in the next five years. We should write to our MPs, to Rachel Reeves, the Chancellor, and Ed Miliband, secretary of state for energy security and net zero. We should seek out campaigns and support them, sign petitions, boycott those companies that are supporting the continued expansion of fossil fuels. We should review our financial arrangements – do our banks, insurers, pension providers etc support fossil fuels industries? We should look at our own lifestyles – are we walking the talk? We should be looking out for groups and communities being marginalised and penalised by the climate crisis and the failure to make a just transition to a sustainable world.
This is the gospel message: we need to love our neighbours as ourselves – not just the neighbour next door, but the neighbours in the next town, across the next boarder, and in the farthest parts of the globe. We need to tend and care for the planet knowing that it is the unique common home that God created for us. We need to love God with our whole being because it is that love that will motivate us to act.
Isaiah 6:1-8, [9-13]
In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lofty; and the hem of his robe filled the temple. Seraphs were in attendance above him; each had six wings: with two they covered their faces, and with two they covered their feet, and with two they flew. And one called to another and said:
“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts;
the whole earth is full of his glory.”
The pivots on the thresholds shook at the voices of those who called, and the house filled with smoke. And I said: “Woe is me! I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips; yet my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!”
Then one of the seraphs flew to me, holding a live coal that had been taken from the altar with a pair of tongs. The seraph touched my mouth with it and said: “Now that this has touched your lips, your guilt has departed and your sin is blotted out.” Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” And I said, “Here am I; send me!” And he said, “Go and say to this people:
`Keep listening, but do not comprehend;
keep looking, but do not understand.’
Make the mind of this people dull,
and stop their ears,
and shut their eyes,
so that they may not look with their eyes,
and listen with their ears,
and comprehend with their minds,
and turn and be healed.”
Then I said, “How long, O Lord?” And he said:
“Until cities lie waste
without inhabitant,
and houses without people,
and the land is utterly desolate;
until the Lord sends everyone far away,
and vast is the emptiness in the midst of the land.
Even if a tenth part remain in it,
it will be burned again,
like a terebinth or an oak
whose stump remains standing
when it is felled.”
The holy seed is its stump.
Psalm 138
1 I will give thanks to you, O Lord, with my whole heart; *
before the gods I will sing your praise.
2 I will bow down toward your holy temple
and praise your Name, *
because of your love and faithfulness;
3 For you have glorified your Name *
and your word above all things.
4 When I called, you answered me; *
you increased my strength within me.
5 All the kings of the earth will praise you, O Lord, *
when they have heard the words of your mouth.
6 They will sing of the ways of the Lord, *
that great is the glory of the Lord.
7 Though the Lord be high, he cares for the lowly; *
he perceives the haughty from afar.
8 Though I walk in the midst of trouble, you keep me safe; *
you stretch forth your hand against the fury of my enemies;
your right hand shall save me.
9 The Lord will make good his purpose for me; *
O Lord, your love endures for ever;
do not abandon the works of your hands.
1 Corinthians 15:1-11
I would remind you, brothers and sisters, of the good news that I proclaimed to you, which you in turn received, in which also you stand, through which also you are being saved, if you hold firmly to the message that I proclaimed to you–unless you have come to believe in vain.
For I handed on to you as of first importance what I in turn had received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers and sisters at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have died. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me. For I am the least of the apostles, unfit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me has not been in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them–though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me. Whether then it was I or they, so we proclaim and so you have come to believe.
Luke 5:1-11
Once while Jesus was standing beside the lake of Gennesaret, and the crowd was pressing in on him to hear the word of God, he saw two boats there at the shore of the lake; the fishermen had gone out of them and were washing their nets. He got into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon, and asked him to put out a little way from the shore. Then he sat down and taught the crowds from the boat. When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch.” Simon answered, “Master, we have worked all night long but have caught nothing. Yet if you say so, I will let down the nets.” When they had done this, they caught so many fish that their nets were beginning to break. So they signalled their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both boats, so that they began to sink. But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, “Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man!” For he and all who were with him were amazed at the catch of fish that they had taken; and so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. Then Jesus said to Simon, “Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching people.” When they had brought their boats to shore, they left everything and followed him.
